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New York City Smokers Go Viral in Video Weighing Out Weed on a Cop Car
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Two Brooklyn comedians took advantage of a temporarily unoccupied cop car this week, sparking outrage from police officers, who called the video an “all-time low.”
Published on August 20, 2018

It turns out that the trunk of a police car is the perfect place to tare a portable scale.

As the Big Apple moves to implement new standards for cannabis policing — and state lawmakers look towards adult-use legalization — New Yorkers are responding in a very New York fashion. In a video shared over the weekend, two Brooklynites satirized the supposed weed-friendly policy changes by pranking NYPD officers with a bag of weed, a cop car, and a smartphone. 

In the now-viral video originally posted to the popular Instagram page @NewYorkCityUncut, a man with a cigarette dangling from his mouth adds cannabis buds to a small digital scale sitting atop the back of an unoccupied NYPD cruiser, weighing out an eighth of ganja for the fearless cameraman.

“You want an eighth? Look, that’s 3.6 for you,” the man on video says as the camera zooms in on the car’s precinct and identification numbers, and eventually to the scale. “I got you.”

As the camera cuts away after only a few short seconds, both of the men snicker, laughing as one of the voices says “Yo, let’s get the fuck out of here” before the video eventually goes black. 

   Video credit : @davidjimenezjr
A post shared by  NYC - MEMES - VIDEOS - HUMOR (@newyorkcityuncut) on Aug 17, 2018 at 2:19pm PDT

According to the New York Daily News, the video was filmed by David Jimenez, who told reporters that no money actually changed hands for any weed, and that the video was made “just for laughs.”

For local cops, though, the video, which now has more than 9,000 views, was a slap in the face to the department. 

“This is an all-time low,” an anonymous high-ranking NYPD officer who saw the video told the Daily News. “The department has to step up now. They’re selling drugs on the back of a police car!”

An NYPD spokesperson told the Daily News that the incident is under investigation, but if Jimenez is correct in saying that no cannabis ever changed hands for money, NYPD policy would presumably punish the offender with no more than a simple ticket — if they can even prove that the weed in the video was real.

The prank comes hot on the heels of a series of recent videos showing New York City residents confronting police officers with verbal tirades denouncing police brutality and racially-biased procedures, which have lead NYPD union officials to question the city’s respect for its boys in blue. In a letter sent from Edward Mullins, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, to Police Commissioner James O’Neill, the union leader said that the videos “come from a lack of leadership” in the department. 

“The lawlessness and complete lack of respect for police officers that has been so blatant under your tenure is no longer restricted to the streets,” O’Neill wrote, referencing a video in which an NYPD Lieutenant is cussed out by a citizen inside of a local precinct. 

Of course, these incidents are not random, and after decades of targeted arrests persecuting New Yorkers of color and criminalizing marijuana, the NYPD will need to offer some respect of their own before the feeling is reciprocated. 

Follow Zach Harris on Twitter

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Zach Harris is a writer based in Philadelphia whose work has appeared on Noisey, First We Feast, and Jenkem Magazine. You can find him on Twitter @10000youtubes complaining about NBA referees.
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